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T O P I C R E V I E W

WAWalsh

I saw a new paperback edition of Michael Collin's "Carrying the Fire" in Barnes & Noble today (June 8, 2001). This remains my favorite astronaut autobiography (might help that it was the first I read many moons ago) and, certainly, no bookshelf should be without a copy.

tegwilym

I just found that book at Half Price Books a couple weeks ago. I immediately bought it! I think I have read that book about 3 times over the years, one of the best books ever!!

DChudwin

Years ago in Madison, Wisconsin, I found a copy of "Carrying the Fire" in a used bookstore. I opened the front cover and found that the first page was autographed by Michael Collins! I think I paid about $10 for the book. It is one of best books written about space up to that time. Needless to say it is a prized item in my space collection. It is amazing what you can find serendipitously.

hinkler

Were all of the Adventure Library copies of "Carrying the Fire" signed by Michael Collins or were the signed copies part of a special members edition?

I am sure someone on this forum has the answer. Thanks for your help.

Gilbert

A book dealer told me that only 110 copies were signed. I have a signed copy but it is not numbered and does not indicate how many were signed. It just says signed edition.

stsmithva

Today's Washington Post children's page features as the KidsPost Summer Book Club choice "Carrying the Fire." The book is introduced by astronaut Don Thomas, who writes what an inspiration Michael Collins was to him as a young boy and mentions that he carried a copy of the book on a Columbia mission in July 1997.

Here's the portion of the article that was online - the Thomas part wasn't.

This book features beautiful writing, honest memories and some very funny astronaut stories. At 544 pages, it's long, but we bet many readers won't be able to put down this real-life adventure story.

ea757grrl

There's a reason "Carrying the Fire" is a classic. It's probably my favorite astronaut book; I first read it when I was 13 or 14, and have loved it ever since. I've found many since that I really enjoyed, but "Carrying the Fire" is the one my heart won't let go. It is a beautiful book.

Of interest to the younger readers, Mike Collins also wrote "Flying To The Moon," which is essentially a condensed "Carrying the Fire." I found a fairly recent paperback copy in a used bookstore a year or so back. (I believe the book is also known as "Flying To The Moon and Other Strange Places.")

micropooz

Carrying the Fire is what brought me back to the space hobby and business.

I was a space fiend growing up in the 60's. But when college rolled around (early 1970's) aerospace was tanking so I decided to go study the (then) burgeoning nuclear power field. One summer day when I was working construction on a nuclear power plant, we got rained out. I went into town to the local bookstore where I found a paperback of Carrying the Fire. I bought it and couldn't put it down. That book convinced me that I really needed to be in the space biz, so I changed majors as soon as I got back to school that fall.

Fortuitous decision - Three Mile Island happened a month before I graduated, and stalled the nuclear power industry for the last 30 years...

Thanks Mike Collins!

tegwilym

Best space book EVER!

Whizzospace

You are so right. The spirit, the wit, the genuinely good storytelling, all combine to make this one the gold standard. Even today, in venues like the documentary film "In Shadow of the Moon," General Collins' words and expressiveness really steal the show.

spaceman1953

This was also one of the first "space" books I read in its' entirety... each and every word, which is the only way I read and I thought it was superb then and now.

And you know, I think this was a book, a hard cover, probably a first edition, that I paid absolute full retail price for in a mall near my home. As a broke, college student at the time, that was a lot of money!

Now I am a broke, 55-year old and am always looking for a bargain! Cheers!

You know, a good Apollo 11 40th anniversary project might be to read some of these classics again... and, hey, maybe even do a few "lectures" in the public library/school systems in the area!

FFrench

I browsed a copy of the 40th anniversary edition of "Carrying the Fire" in a bookstore today, and read the new introduction that Collins has written.

It's a wonderfully wry and eloquent piece by him - reminding us, as if we needed any reminder, of what a great writer he is. He takes us up to date with his life and thoughts in a few succinct words - the few new pages alone are better than many full-length books... I'd recommend browsing it too.

GoesTo11

Well, a hardcover anniversary edition would have been nice, but I'm not complaining.

I have nothing, really, to add to other posters' praise of General Collins' wonderful memoir. I will say that in my own (sort of) humble opinion, any short list of essential books chronicling the Gemini-Apollo era begins with Chaikin's "A Man on the Moon" and Murray and Cox's "Apollo." "Carrying the Fire" would be my next choice.

I also recall reading it the first time through and thinking on numerous occasions, "There's NO WAY that this wasn't ghost-written." At the time (I couldn't have been more than 12 or 13), I still bought into the stereotype of astronauts as being quite uncomfortable communicators outside of the technical arcana of their profession. General Collins definitely opened my eyes, and mind, on that score.

Robert Pearlman

Transcript/video to follow later, but Kevin Ford just said from space that "Carrying the Fire" was the first book that inspired him to pursue becoming an astronaut.

I actually was inspired to pursue becoming an astronaut because of a book that I read when I was about 13 or 14 years old by an astronaut named Michael Collins, who was part of the Apollo 11 crew. It was called "Carrying the Fire." It was a fantastic account of his early life as a pilot and test pilot and I just really fell in love with that profession because of that book.

And of course, what he did was one of the most magical things that has happened in the course of human history as far as I am concerned, with the trip he took to the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

So that is what inspired me, that particular book. After that, I read lots and lots more that just inspired me further, but that was really the one that set it all off.

RobertB

I've got an old copy of "Carrying the Fire" and I understand that the newer editions have been "updated". Can anyone tell me what the difference is?